Bob Woodward

Robert Upshur "Bob" Woodward is the assistant managing editor for Investigative News for The Washington Post. Woodward and Carl Bernstein are the "reporters of the Washington Post [who] investigated the Watergate break-in and first cracked the Watergate scandal in August 1972, which led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974." [1]

Prior to this however, Woodward worked "as communications watch officer at the Pentagon in 1970, which led him to act as a courier between the military and the White House. His work brought him into close contact with General Alexander Haig, who worked for the National Security Council and whom he frequently briefed. Operating in this environment had much more to do with his future evolution as a journalist than anything else, including his work on exposing Watergate." [1]

On February 12, 2007, Woodward testified that "former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage disclosed the identity of a C.I.A. agent to him in June 2003, but that I. Lewis Libby Jr. said nothing about the agent when Mr. Woodward talked to him two weeks later," David Stout reported in the New York Times.

Undisclosed "Source"

According to a statement released November 15, 2005, by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward, in a more than two-hour deposition under oath November 14th, he told Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald that a "senior administration official [casually] told him in mid-June 2003 that [Valerie] Plame worked as a CIA analyst on weapons of mass destruction, and that he did not believe the information to be classified or sensitive."

"A lawyer in the case said Woodward's source had not previously testified before a grand jury in the leak case." [2]

"Citing a confidentiality agreement in which the source freed Woodward to testify but would not allow him to discuss their conversations publicly, Woodward and Post editors refused to disclose the official's name or provide crucial details about the testimony. Woodward did not share the information with Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. until last month, and the only Post reporter whom Woodward said he remembers telling in the summer of 2003 does not recall the conversation taking place." [3]

"So now we have a situation where an icon of the journalistic fraternity intentionally sat on a story for over two years, while a special prosecutor investigated whether a criminal betrayal of the national security of our country occurred." --Joe Wilson, TPM Cafe, November 18, 2005.

"Woodward's disclosure was motivated not by a sudden pang of conscience, as it turns out, but by the sudden necessity of testifying under oath before a federal grand jury." --Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2005.

Related Links

Murray Waas, "Some initial thoughts about W. Mark Felt and Watergate,"Whatever Already!, June 2, 2005: "Whatever one thinks about the current day Bob Woodward, the Washington Post's Watergate reporting was a watershed event in American journalism. ... Whatever one thinks of Woodward's reporting itself, he is still doing reporting. ... As to [David] Sirota's comment that Woodward's reporting has become one of simply telling power's story, I would add that, unfortunately, it has become not only one of simply telling power's story, but celebrating power's story."

Douglas McCollam, "Attack At The Source. Why the Plame case is so scary,"Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 2005: "Bob Woodward, perhaps the preeminent investigative reporter of his time, believes in supporting journalists who are protecting sources. Yet he sees the use of confidentiality in this case — to hide the sources who identified Valerie Plame — as a weak reed to lean on. 'I use confidential sources more than most anyone,' Woodward concedes, 'but it has to be worth the risk involved. I don’t think outing Plame was worth the risk.'"

Transcript: Larry King Live, October 27, 2005: Woodward: "They did a damage assessment within the CIA, looking at what this did that Joe Wilson's wife was outed. And turned out it was quite minimal damage. They did not have to pull anyone out undercover abroad. They didn't have to resettle anyone. There was no physical danger to anyone and there was just some embarrassment."

Antonia Zerbisia, "To the woodshed,"Toronto Star blog, November 16, 2005: "Here's the extra special sleazy part: Woodward admits that none of this would have come out had his mysterious source not spilled the beans to the Special Counsel."

Biographical Profile

Woodward, born March 26, 1943, in Geneva, Illinois, graduated from Yale University in 1965 and served in the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1970. [4][5]

"Woodward joined the Post in 1971 from the Montgomery County, Maryland, Sentinel, where he had been a reporter and in 1979, he became assistant managing editor of Metropolitan News. Prior to reporting, Woodward served in the U.S. Navy as a communications officer." [6]

Woodward reported the Watergate scandal from 1972 to 1974, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973. He was promoted to assistant managing editor of the Washington Post in 1981. [7]

Articles & Commentary

2002

Julian Borger, "President's man?,"Guardian/UK, November 26, 2002: "Ever since the Watergate scandal, reporter Bob Woodward has been a scourge of the White House. But critics say his latest book is soft on George W. Bush. Has he got too close to the president?"